In the manufacture of cabinetry such as kitchen cabinets and the like, it is a common practice to form the basic components usually consisting of a set of panels, assembling certain sets of such panels to form two or more cabinets and then forming an ensemble by assembling the individual cabinets together. Typically, such panels are formed from large, raw material woodpieces loaded onto the worktable of a CNC machine, usually a router, such machined panels are removed from the worktable of the machine and sorted into groups of panels with respect to the cabinet to which they apply, the groups of sorted panels are assembled to form constituent cabinets and such cabinets are assembled together, usually at an installation site to complete the cabinetry.
To efficiently use such workpieces to provide a maximum number of usable panels with a minimum amount of scrap material, the controllers of such CNC machines are programmed to arrange for cutting patterns which will yield the maximum number of usable pieces and a minimum amount of scrap material. Such cutting patterns invariably result in a cutting pattern in which the resulting cut components are nested in the raw material workpeice in a dispersed manner, requiring a workman assigned to remove and sort such pieces to ascertain the identification of the particular components applicable to a particular cabinet. Such sorting process can be time consuming and often imprecise, materially decreasing productivity. Such process particularly is unproductive where the workman may be unskilled and/or inexperienced.
Accordingly, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a novel method and means for allowing an unskilled and/or inexperienced workman to readily remove machined components of different sets of components from a plurality of such components nested on the worktable of a machine, and sort such components into sets for transfer to and/or assembly to form a number of structures such as a set of cabinets.